Privacy Policy

1. About this policy

This Privacy Policy explains what information Cartners Inc., a Delaware corporation ("Cartners", "we", "us" or "our"), collects when you use the Cartners mobile application, the Cartners website and online clubhouse, and the Cartners Booking platform (together, the "Service"), why we collect it, who we share it with and the choices you have.

Cartners does not sell your personal information, and does not share it with anyone to advertise to you. The Service is built around information you choose to share with other golfers, organizers and professionals, and this policy describes exactly how far that sharing goes.

2. Information you give us

Account details: your email address, which is also how you sign in; your mobile number; your name; a profile photo; a short bio; and the golf details you choose to add, such as your handicap, playing preferences and the area you play in.

Your golf activity: the tee-time groups, tournaments, leagues and organizations you create or join; scorecards and scores you enter, including scores entered with a guest scoring code; side-game results; organization logos and event details you publish; and the connections and friends you make.

Messages: direct messages with other members and chat in a tee-time group, including any GIFs you send.

Booking requests: when you ask a coach or caddie for a booking, the details of your request, including dates, notes and your contact details, and the reference of any appointment that results.

Support: anything you send us when you contact support@cartners.golf.

3. Information collected automatically

Device and app information: an identifier the app generates for your device, the app version and platform, and, if you turn notifications on, the notification token issued for your device by Apple or Google. On the website, the browser notification subscription if you opt in, and the public half of any passkey you create; the private half and any fingerprint or face data never leave your device.

Sign-in and security information: the one-time sign-in codes we send, the session tokens that keep you signed in, and the device sessions shown in Account settings so you can sign out a device you no longer use.

Server logs: your IP address, the time of each request, and error reports, kept to run and secure the Service and to investigate abuse.

The mobile app does not contain advertising or analytics software.

4. Location

To find golfers, coaches and caddies near you, Cartners uses a postal (ZIP) code that you choose, together with the search radius you set. You can type the ZIP code, or choose "Use my location": the app or browser then asks the device for an approximate position once, sends it to our server only to work out the nearest ZIP code, and shows you that ZIP code to review before anything is saved.

Cartners never tracks your location in the background, never follows you between places, and never records a location while the app is closed. A single reading taken when you tap "Use my location" is used to find the ZIP code and is not kept as a record of where you were.

Your saved ZIP code and radius, and an approximate position for the area you play in, are held on your profile and used on our servers to work out who and what is within your radius. That position is never shown to other members, never returned to any app or browser, and never shared: it is removed from every profile the Service sends out, so another member sees only the city and state your ZIP code belongs to. Precise location is treated as sensitive personal information under some laws, and we use it only for this purpose.

5. Camera and photos

The app asks for camera access only when you scan a QR code to add a friend or open a printed scoring code, and for photo library access only when you choose a profile picture. Scanning happens on your device; we receive the friend code or the image you selected, nothing else from your camera or library.

6. How we use information

We use the information above to run the Service: to sign you in, to show your profile to the golfers you play with, to organize groups, tournaments, leagues and organizations, to calculate leaderboards and results, to deliver the messages and notifications you have chosen to receive, to pass a booking request to the professional you selected, and to answer your support requests.

We also use it to keep the Service safe and honest: to detect and prevent abuse, fraud and unauthorized access; to enforce our Terms of Service; and to comply with the law.

We use aggregate information that does not identify anyone, such as how many rounds were arranged in a month, to understand how the Service is used and to improve it.

7. Who information is shared with

Other members, as you direct. Your name, profile photo and the golf details you add are visible to members you connect with and to the groups, events and organizations you join. Tournament organizers and the scorers they appoint see the roster and the scores of their event; organization owners and admins see their members; leaderboards show the names and scores of everyone competing; and messages are visible to the people in the conversation. Guest scoring shows a scorer the names of the players in their group.

Professionals you choose to book. When you send a booking request to a coach or caddie, your name, contact details and the request itself are passed to that professional through the Cartners Booking platform so they can respond. Appointments and any payment you make for a professional service are handled on that platform under its own terms, and the professional decides how to keep the information you gave them.

Service providers that work for us: the cloud hosting that runs the Service and stores its data; the email service that sends your sign-in codes and notices; Apple, Google and Firebase, which deliver notifications; GIPHY, which receives the search term you type when you look for a GIF in chat; YouTube, which plays the golf videos in the app; the payment processor used by Cartners Booking for professional services; and, for coaches and caddies only, a background-check provider. Each of them may process information only to provide their service to us, or under their own privacy policy where you interact with them directly.

Background checks, which apply to professionals and not to golfers. A coach or caddie who offers bookings gives their details to a background-check provider, which returns a criminal records report to us so the professional can be listed. We use that report only to decide whether to list them, we tell them the outcome, and where the law requires it we give them a copy of the report and the chance to dispute it before we act on it. Cartners does not run any check on a golfer, and no golfer is ever the subject of one.

Legal reasons. We disclose information when the law requires it, to respond to a valid legal request, to protect the rights, property or safety of Cartners, our members or the public, or to enforce our Terms of Service.

A change of ownership. If Cartners is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, your information may be transferred to the successor, who will be bound by this policy unless you are told otherwise and given a choice.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.

8. Website analytics

The public pages of the Cartners website may use a minimal analytics measurement, only if the site has been configured for it and only after you accept it when asked. It records which public pages and tools are used and never covers the signed-in clubhouse, member searches or member data. You can withdraw that choice at any time from the "Analytics choices" control in the website footer.

9. Your choices

Notifications: turn them on or off in Account settings and in your device settings; quiet hours you set are honored. Location, camera and photo access: allow or revoke them in your device settings; you can always type a ZIP code or a friend code instead.

Your profile and connections: edit your profile at any time, remove a connection, leave a group or organization, or withdraw from an event, subject to the organizer's rules.

Your account: close it from Account settings. Closure starts a short grace period during which you can cancel; after it, your account and personal information are deleted as described in section 10. Devices: sign out any device from the device list in Account settings.

10. How long information is kept

We keep your information while your account is open and for as long as it is needed to run the Service. When you close your account, your profile, connections, messages, device records and notification tokens are deleted after the grace period. Scores and results that other members legitimately hold, such as a published tournament result that names you, are kept by that event; server logs are kept for a limited time for security; and we keep records we are legally required to keep.

11. Security

All traffic between the app, the website and our servers is encrypted in transit. Sign-in tokens are kept in your device's secure storage where the device provides one, and are otherwise protected as well as the device allows. You sign in with a one-time code, so there is no password for anyone to steal. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, so please keep your device and email account protected and tell us at once if you believe your account has been misused.

12. Children

The Service is for adults, and the requirement is enforced rather than only stated: the date of birth you give during setup is checked, and an account cannot be created or edited to show an age under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, we do not direct the Service to children, and we will delete such information if we learn we have it. If you believe a child has created an account, contact support@cartners.golf and we will act on it.

13. Where information is processed

Cartners is operated from the United States, and your information is stored and processed there. If you use the Service from another country, your information is transferred to and processed in the United States, where privacy laws may differ from those where you live.

Where information about someone in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland is transferred to us or to a service provider outside those areas, the transfer is made under the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses, together with the United Kingdom Addendum where that applies, unless the destination has been found to offer an adequate level of protection or another lawful transfer mechanism applies. You can ask us for more detail about the safeguards that cover your information by emailing privacy@cartners.golf.

14. Your rights

Wherever you live, you can see and update the information in your profile, download your data by asking us, and close your account. To exercise any right described here, email support@cartners.golf from the address on your account, or with enough detail for us to verify that you are the account holder. We will respond within the time the applicable law allows and will not treat you differently for making a request.

California residents have the right to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose; to request its deletion; to correct inaccurate information; to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, which we do not do; to limit the use of sensitive personal information; and not to be discriminated against for exercising these rights. Put "California Privacy Rights" in the subject line of your request. The public website also honours the Global Privacy Control signal: if your browser sends it, the optional analytics described in section 8 do not run at all and you are not asked about them.

Residents of the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland have the right of access, and the rights to rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection, and the right to withdraw consent at any time without affecting earlier processing. Our legal bases are performance of our agreement with you, your consent where we ask for it, our legitimate interests in running and securing the Service, and compliance with legal obligations. You may also complain to your local data protection authority. Put "GDPR Request" in the subject line of your request.

Residents of Canada, Brazil, Australia and US states with their own privacy laws have similar rights of access, correction and deletion under those laws, and we honor them in the same way.

Someone else may make a request for you if you authorise them to, and we may ask you to confirm that directly. We do not charge for a request, and we do not refuse one because it was inconvenient. If we cannot verify that a request comes from the account holder we will say so rather than act on it, because acting on an unverified request about someone’s account is itself a privacy failure.

15. Changes to this policy

The current version of this policy, with its version number and effective date, is always shown in the mobile app and on the website. If we make a material change to how we collect, use or share personal information, we will notify you through the Service before the change takes effect.

16. Contact

Cartners Inc. Privacy requests and questions: privacy@cartners.golf, or support@cartners.golf. Use the subject line "Privacy Policy Inquiry" for general questions, or the subject lines named in section 14 to exercise a specific right.